Fox Blood Part Two
by foxxheart
Summary: Foxx, Birch and Falcon are three kits who lost their family and are left to face the world alone and yet together. It was their mother's lifelong dream to find and join the clans, and now it's their responsibility to fulfill it as her dying wish. Part Three and Part Four are also up for read! Bai 3


I frantically clawed at the branches flying upward around me, hitting a few before I caught onto one with two claws, almost ripping them out with my momentum. I hung there, finally looking downward at Birch and Falcon. Their eyes were wide as they looked up at me, and when Birch realized I wasn't falling anymore, he changed his expression and gave me a crazy grin.

I guess I was kind of hoping that I would catch on lower to the ground so I could safely drop down, but I was still too high up, even for a cat. I swung my other front paw onto the same branch, and slowly adjusted my grip to heave myself up on the thin branch, scrabbling with my back paws too for a grip.

Eventually, I got back down the trunk with Falcon's help, not to mention that she sucked at climbing trees more than I did.

Birch walked up to me with the blue bird in his mouth and dropped it by my feet.

"You earned it," He said.

I looked at him for a second. "No, I didn't! You guys need to have some too. I only caught it!" I protested.

"It's okay. I went and caught a really young vole while you were stalking it. Falcon and I shared."

I sniffed his muzzle. No prey.

"Fine. I'll take it." I said as I glared at him. I picked it up, turned around and whisked past Falcon to gnaw at it on the roots of the tree that I fell out of. It tasted bland.

I wish they didn't care about me so much.

The next day, I made sure that Falcon and Birch ate as much as they could before I had the leftovers. We only really had a rabbit at about sunhigh, so all of us felt like exploding, but we still had some left and I offered to carry it as we walked.

"What do you think the Clans are like?" Falcon asked out of the blue.

"Ummm…" Me and Birch looked at each other, then back at Falcon, who was walking in between us, since she was weakest because of her shoulder.

"No idea, huh?"

"Nope."

"Nah."

"Seriously, guys, can't you even guess?" She pestered.

"Nope."

"Nah."

Silence.

After a while, I finally broke the silence again. "Why did Mom even want us to go to them?"

"Well, she knows that they'll take us in, because, you know…" Falcon spoke up, her voice falling away into thought.

"Thank you. Like I wasn't depressed already." Birch grumbled to Falcon.

Aaaand, more silence. Right on cue.

Later That Day

It was night. The full moon hung from the sky, lighting up the forest as if it was day. We knew that we should find cover to sleep for the night, but we were all hungry again (somehow) so I was out hunting. I also knew that I was too young to hunt on most cat's standards, but I've been trying.

That actually worked to my advantage, because I could fit into burrows and catch easy prey while it's sleeping. And that's just what I planned to do tonight.

I sniffed the air, picking up the scent of mouse, somewhat dulled by the smell of raw earth. I followed my nose until I found a small hole that I knew that I could fit into.

I took a breath of fresh air, and silently crawled in the hole. I knew I'd scored a good catch due to the faint but sure smell of mouse milk. I kept crawling along, my whiskers brushing the sides of the tunnel, until it opened up to a bigger area with a sleeping family of mice smack dab in the middle.

Judging from the smell, there was four babies and an adult. I swiftly cracked the adult's neck before it could react, and then three of the babies, leaving one baby left, which was apparently a really heavy sleeper.

An Idea popped into my head, and I tucked the fourth under my chin, careful not to disturb it, then crammed the rest intomy mouth and trotted back out of the hole and back to my littermates.

Once I did get back to them, I dropped all the mice and nudged Birch awake and passed him the adult and two of the baby mice, leaving a baby and the sleeping one for me.

He shook Falcon, who was curled up next to him, and murmured, "She's back."

Her eyes lit up as he happily shoved her share of the fresh-kill towards her, which was the two babies, while he got to work on the adult.

I turned around to the live mouse and whispered, "Guys. Watch this!" as I shook it awake.

"Wow! That one's still alive!?" Birch whisper-exclaimed.

"Yup!" I replied cheerfully, pressing one paw on its tail so it couldn't run away

Falcon looked confused. " _Why_ is it alive?"

"Oh! You know that lake we saw a bit ago? Mom used to say to me that the Clans lived pretty close to a big lake like that, so I was thinking that if we all got into a short tree and dropped the mouse on the forest floor, it would naturally want to run away from cats, but if we were right above it, it would run in any direction, correct?"

"Um, yeah…" Falcon said uncertainly. She obviously thought I was just going to let it go, but she was wrong.

Birch perked up. "Oh yeah! I get what you're trying to say! Since the Clans could be in any direction from here, the mouse is gonna lead us there somehow?" He asked, exited.

The mouse wriggled under my paw. "Basically, yes. It will naturally run _away_ from the clans, so I'll drop down and re-catch it, eat, and then we can go towards the clans tomorrow at sunrise!"

"Ooooh!" both of my littermates mewed.

"Let's do it, then!"

We were in the tree, the mouse gently held between my teeth, ready to drop. I waited for a few seconds, until Birch, to my left, said, "Now."

I stretched my neck down as far as it would go, and I parted my mouth farther than it already was. The mouse dropped, landed on its back, scrabbled to its feet, paused, and scuttled directly away from the lake.

I quickly jumped out of the tree, and pursued the baby mouse, and swiftly and finally killed it. I trotted back to the clearing, laid down, and finished my meal.

As I drifted off to sleep, I felt Birch and Falcon curl up close to me, and the last thing I heard was Falcon, whispering, "At least we know where to go now."

And I fell into comforting darkness.


End file.
